Dispensing containers containing a liquid such as a beverage may require to be mounted into a dispensing appliance for dispensing the liquid contained therein. The dispensing appliance comprises at least one dispensing tube bringing in fluid communication the volume of the container containing the liquid with ambient. This dispensing duct is usually provided with a valve for controlling the flow of liquid out of the container. In order to drive the flow of liquid out of the container, a dispensing appliance usually also comprises means for creating a pressure difference between the interior of the container and ambient to drive the liquid out of the container. Said means may be simply gravity driven, by positioning the inlet of the dispensing duct below the level of liquid like in old oak barrels for wine or in soap dispensers in public washrooms, but more advantageously, they comprise either means for increasing the pressure inside the container or, alternatively, decreasing the pressure outside the container, such as with a pump. If the pressure is being increased outside the container, such dispensing system is referred to herein as a “pressure dispensing” system, whilst a “vacuum dispensing” system refers to systems where the pressure inside the container is decreased. A pump may be used in both pressure and vacuum dispensing systems. For pressure dispensing systems, however, other means can be used such as pressurized gas stored in a pressure cartridge and/or adsorbed on a carrier. Said means for storing pressurized gas may be provided either in the container or in the appliance. If a source of pressurized gas external to the container is used, the dispensing appliance shall require at least a second, gas tube to be connected to a corresponding aperture in the closure or container body to bring said source in fluid communication with the interior of the container.
The gas connection may serve either to inject pressurized gas into the container to drive the dispensing of liquid (“pressure dispensing” systems), or to allow air into the container to fill the volume of dispensed liquid such as to maintain the pressure relatively constant in the container (“vacuum dispensing” systems). The container may comprise a single wall (although the wall can be a laminate) or may comprise several detachable layers, such as in bag-in-containers and bladder-in-containers. Bag-in-containers, also referred to as bag-in-bottles or bag-in-boxes depending on the geometry of the outer vessel, all terms considered herein as being comprised within the meaning of the term bag-in-container, are a family of liquid dispensing packaging consisting of an outer container comprising an opening to the atmosphere—the mouth—and which contains a collapsible inner bag joined to said container and opening to the atmosphere at the region of said mouth. The liquid is contained in the inner bag. The system must comprise at least one vent fluidly connecting the atmosphere to the region between the inner bag and the outer container in order to control the pressure in said region to squeeze the inner bag and thus dispense the liquid contained therein (cf. e.g., WO2008/129018 and GB8925324). Alternatively, in bladder-in-containers, the liquid is contained in the outer container and the inner bag, generally called a bladder, is either inflated to drive the flow of liquid out of the container, or simply put in fluid connection with atmospheric, in order to balance the pressure inside the container (cf. WO9015774, EP1647499, WO2010055057, U.S. Pat. No. 5,499,758, GB9504284, FR2602222, GB8806378). The advantage of bag-in-containers and bladder-in-containers over single wall containers is that the liquid is never in contact with an external gas. The present invention applies to any type of container provided with a closure comprising at least one aperture and is particularly suitable for pressure driven systems, more particularly for bag-in-containers and bladder-in-containers.
Of course, the connection of each tube with each corresponding aperture can be performed individually and once completed the container connected to all necessary tubing for the dispensing of the liquid contained therein can be positioned into the loading portion of the dispensing appliance. An example of such an assembly of a container and a dispensing appliance is given in WO90/15774, wherein the container is a bladder-in-container. In WO90/15774, a bladder and dispensing stem are provided in a dispensing end of the appliance which acts as a closure and can be fixed to the mouth of the container via a thread. The bladder and stem are therefore first introduced into and fixed to the container via said dispensing end, and thereafter the dispensing end and container are positioned in the housing of the appliance. A similar system can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,787 with a bag-in-container, wherein a dispensing end of the appliance comprises a dispensing stem to be introduced into the bag containing the liquid. Applying a dispensing end of a dispensing appliance with a stem into a container is quite cumbersome and has the great drawback that the container must be opened before mounting on the appliance. This contact of the liquid with ambient may be critical for the quality of some liquids.
For comfort of use, it is preferred that the container may be mounted onto the dispensing appliance in as few steps as possible, and for sensitive liquids, avoiding any contact between the liquid contained in the container with ambient. The latter can be achieved by providing the dispensing tube and any additional tubing, such as a gas connection, with puncturing means suitable for breaking open a sealed opening. To reduce the number of steps required to mount the container onto the dispensing appliance, one could imagine that the container may be mounted onto the holding portion of an appliance and the dispensing end thereof simply applied on against the closure, with the aim of bringing the interior of the container in fluid communication with a dispensing tube and a gas connection. For obvious reasons, the at least one aperture in the closure is generally sealed prior to use and the sealed aperture must then be broken open to introduce the corresponding tubing in the thus unsealed aperture. Generally, the interface between the appliance tubing and corresponding apertures, once engaged into one another, must be gas tight for pressure and most vacuum dispensing systems to allow pressure to build up.
For hygienic reasons, however, as well as for not mixing different tastes when using containers containing different liquids, the dispensing tube is preferably changed with each new container being mounted onto the appliance. This requirement forces back to the solution of the prior art discussed above comprising the distinct steps of connecting each tube individually to the container, mounting the container with tubing onto the appliance, and bringing the appliance in dispensing configuration. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,454,131 discloses a semi automated connecting system for a dispensing appliance associated with a bag-in-container. A first connection (18) of a pump (19) to the space (17) between inner and outer layers of the containers must first be performed individually. Then the tip of a right angle curved dispensing tube (34) is laid onto the sealing membrane of the dispensing aperture of the container. Upon closing the lid (4) by a rotational movement about hinges, and by pressurizing the space (17) the tip of the dispensing tube (34) is forced through the dispending aperture. This still represents too long a sequence of steps before a container can be loaded onto an appliance and the latter be operational for dispensing the liquid contained in the container which is not compatible with today's standards of expectation of the consumers.
Alternatively, a new dispensing tube can be provided in a cartridge further comprising a new dispensing valve. Such cartridge can easily be mounted with each new container mounted in the appliance. Such solutions are disclosed, e.g., in U.S. Pat. No. 5,022,565, U.S. Pat. No. 5,979,713, and WO2009142662. Including a new dispensing valve with each new dispensing tube of course has the disadvantage of increasing the cost of a disposable element of the dispensing appliance which could discourage the consumers.
Dispensing cartridges comprising no valve have been proposed in WO2005110912, WO2006082486, and WO2010040192. The cartridges disclosed therein comprise a flexible portion of the dispensing tube protruding out of the cartridge at one side thereof, the distal end of said flexible portion defining the outlet, whilst the proximal end is engaged in a plastic cartridge, wherein it joins a rigid channel forming a sharp 90 deg angle to jut out of the cartridge to form the dispensing tube inlet which is to enter in fluid communication with the liquid contained in the container. The rather elongated cartridge is to be inserted into the dispensing appliance loaded with a container as follows. First the flexible end is engaged in a pinch valve and inserted into a spout downstream from the valve, with the jutting inlet portion resting on top of the closure of the container. Then, in a second step, the jutting inlet portion of the dispensing tube is to be pushed through an initially sealed dispensing opening disposed in the container to bring the interior of the container in fluid communication with ambient through the dispensing tube. The cartridges disclosed in these documents show two major drawbacks. First, the sharp 90 deg angle formed where the jutting inlet portion meets the cartridge portion of the channel, which is required for allowing to push vigorously the inlet end through the container's opening creates a sharp pressure difference in the liquid which promotes excessive formation of froth in carbonated beverages such as sodas and beer. Second, the flexible tube must first be introduced into the pinch valve system and spout and then manually aligned with the container's opening before actually introducing the dispensing tube inlet into the container's opening. Any misalignment may damage either the dispensing tube or the container's opening or both. Furthermore, the end user does not wish to play around with accurate positioning of the cartridge before the appliance can be used.
It appears that there is still a need in the art for dispensing appliances allowing the easy and yet economical mounting of a new dispensing tube in a dispensing appliance with a new container. The dispensing tube must preferably control froth formation for carbonated beverages.
The present invention solves the problem of providing a solution for quickly and easily mounting a container into a dispensing appliance whilst changing the dispensing tube with each new container. This and other objects of the invention are presented hereinbelow.